Top Business Hub for Pharmaceutical Leaders Announces Prestigious Multi-Company Collaboration To Create A Global Standard of "Good Patient Practice"

LONDON – (September 14, 2016) – Today eyeforpharma, the progressive and leading global conference producer for the pharmaceutical industry, confirmed their patient-centricity events have achieved a global reach to showcase the most innovative examples of ‘Good Patient Practice’.

Beyond the ‘buzzwords’ of patient-centricity, eyeforpharma are relentless in their determination to keep pushing boundaries that build trust in pharma and encourage relationships between patients and pharma. This is a revolution from the traditional ‘hands-off’ history of interactions between industry and patients where industry has tied itself in regulatory knots around appropriate behaviours. Accordingly, eyeforpharma have invited Patient Engagement Experts and Pharma Executives to help establish an industry standard for ‘Good Patient Practice’ that is practical and actionable beyond the hyperbole.

“We need pharma to realise that patient centricity is not about compassion or ‘having sympathy’ for patients, but is actually an inevitability given the healthcare shift from volume to value, and that the time for empty title-changes meaning you are patient-centric has long past.” Says Paul Simms, Chairman at eyeforpharma – “By outlining and auditing ‘Good Patient Practices’ wewant to give people a sense of where the rest of the industry is, using some of our research to demonstrate how their thinking compares to others and showing how to instil an inevitable internal transformation to a patient-driven culture.”

During the week commencing October 10th, eyeforpharma will host two Patient Summit conferences back to back to assemble cases studies and launch the ‘Good Patient Practices’ initiative. The US Summit focuses on starting the cultural change from within, and early. Susan Vallow, Head, Patient Focused Outcomes, GSK will present that “involving patients throughout research and development is an important way that we can create medicines of value and improve public health”. Chris Boerner, Head of U.S. Commercial, Bristol-Myers Squibb echoes this and will also present at the conference; “At Bristol-Myers Squibb, patients are at the center of everything we do. When you walk our halls there are pictures of patients everywhere. Meetings often kick off with a video illustrating a patient story. These simple things serve as a constant reminder of who we are working for, and why we come to work every day: hoping to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients by delivering transformational medicines.”

The greatest asset that eyeforpharma has is their reach and influence within the pharmaceutical industry. At their most popular ‘Barcelona’ event in March, they launched the #trustpharma campaign and the ‘Aurora’ initiative was created. As such they have momentum and members to drive the establishment of ‘no-nonsense’ guidelines for what constitutes good patient practices. Their most recent survey (with Aurora) of 2,300 executives from 85 different countries highlighted the challenges that pharma faces in moving beyond claims of patient-centricity to actionable insights: 86% of respondents ranked the importance of Pharma to deliver on their patient-focused missions as at least 8/10 however only 21% of people felt they knew how to create meaningful programmes and fewer than 5% of patients in the same survey had faith that pharma had the ability to deliver such programmes. The reasons for this are multifactorial. eyeforpharma believe that laying out very clear guidelines under this ‘Good Patient Practices’ initiative will finally provide the impetus to restore faith and resurrect trust in pharma and be a template under which companies can turn titles into patient truths.

Emma D’Arcy-Sutcliffe, a veteran of patient-inspired projects and global lobbyist for the patient-voice has been tasked with the audit of company practices to establish the GPP benchmark. As an independent expert, Emma has spent twenty years preparing and upskilling industry in readiness for the empowerment that digital and social health engagement has given patients. Emma explains; “The patient voice is stronger than ever – they’re not just asking for things, they are becoming ‘scientific citizens’.Our industry is experiencing a dramatic shift towards a 'Patient Economy' which sees patients more driven, more focussed, more expectant of our therapies, services and support than ever before. To hear and understand those needs we must initiate projects through patient channels, invest efforts into creating PRO tools using patient technologies and enable connected, concierge services for patients. It is imperative that we learn from and share successes and challenges along the way. That’s what the ‘Good Patient Practice’ annual audit will do.”

About eyeforpharma’s Patient Summit

The 13th annual Patient Summit USA 2016 is where patient-driven partnerships with stakeholders actually happen. This is not just a talking shop - be one of 300+ senior pharma executives, regulatory authorities, providers, payers, advocates and patients who plan to deliver sustainable solutions to the patient community. Learn how to align your company culture with the patient in mind, increase adherence, and promote self-care. http://goo.gl/jRvdsp